UKEF £1.5bn earmarked for Nigeria ‘largely untouched’

(PUNCH Nigeria, Lagos, 24 October 2021) The £1.5bn financing set aside for Nigeria by the UK Export Finance, the United Kingdom government’s export credit agency, has remained largely untouched, the UK Government Department for International Trade, Nigeria has said at the 2021 Energy Sustainability Conference organised by the Energy Institute Nigeria in Lagos. “UKEF is focussed on 30 countries in Africa with a combined market risk appetite of £58bn." According to Chimwemwe Chalemera, Country Director, UK Government Department for International Trade, Nigeria, the UK’s renewable energy capabilities are a right match with the energy needs of Africa and Nigeria in achieving net zero ambitions. Meanwhile over 50 Nigerian civil society groups have written to President Buhari calling for oil in the massive OPL 245 field to be kept in the ground. This is the field that Shell and Eni acquired after allegedly paying $1.1 billion in bribes. The companies' subsidiaries are currently being prosecuted in Nigeria and there is still an investigation in The Netherlands.